{"id":3322,"date":"2019-11-11T07:48:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T07:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-grammar\/chinese-grammar-change-of-state-with-le-le\/"},"modified":"2019-11-11T07:48:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T07:48:33","slug":"chinese-grammar-change-of-state-with-le-le","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/mm\/chinese-grammar-change-of-state-with-le-le\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese grammar: Change of state with \u4e86le"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u4e86 (le) has a lot of uses. You probably first learned \u4e86 as a particle that tells you an action is completed, which is also known as \u4e861. This article is not a<\/em>bout that use of \u4e86; it’s a<\/em>bout indicating a change of state (\u4e862). In other words, there is now a new situation, or there is a<\/em>bout to be a new situation. This whole "change of state" idea can take numerous forms, so it’s helpful to view them individually, alo<\/em>ngside some English translations.<\/p>\n

General Change of State <\/span><\/strong>
When used in this way, \u4e86 is placed at the end of the sentence to mark that the whole statement describes a new situation.
Examples: <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

T\u0101 huì k\u0101ich\u0113 le.
\u4ed6 \u4f1a \u5f00\u8f66 \u4e86\u3002<\/div>\n


<\/p>\n

"He can drive now." (he couldn’t before)<\/div>\n

Expressing "Now"<\/strong>
The word "now" doesn’t always need to be translated as \u73b0\u5728. You’ll notice that in many common ex<\/em>pressions, \u4e86 is used in place of the explicit word for "now."<\/p>\n

Ch\u012b fàn le !
\u5403\u996d \u4e86\uff01<\/div>\n
"Time to eat!"<\/div>\n

Expressing "Already"<\/strong>
You can expect to see the word \u5df2\u7ecf (meaning "already") in these sentences, which frequently pairs up with \u4e86, but note that sometimes that feeling of "already" can also be expressed with \u4e86 alone.<\/p>\n

W\u01d2 ch\u012b \u0261uò fàn le .
\u6211 \u5403 \u8fc7 \u996d \u4e86 \u3002<\/div>\n
"I’ve (already) eaten."<\/div>\n

Expressing "Not Anymore"<\/strong>
In a negative sentence, the sentence-final \u4e86 can taken on the meaning of "(not) anymore" or "no longer."<\/p>\n

Méi y\u01d2u zh\u01d0 le,
\u6ca1\u6709 \u7eb8 \u4e86\u3002<\/div>\n
"There’s no paper anymore." (in other words, "we’re out of paper")<\/div>\n<\/div>\n